AND THE WINNER IS …

The new Debian "Etch" release follows a close Debian Project Leader election. Sam Hocevar surpassed other candidates by only eight votes.

April 8, 2007, Debian Project Secretary Manoj Srivastava announced a winner in the election for a new Project Leader. The choice came as a surprise to many people: Sam Hocevar won the battle. Just a short time later, the tickers displayed a second Debian announcement: The developers announced that Etch was now finished and available as an official release. Hard Fought At about 2am on April 8, Manoj Srivastava published the interim results of the election for a Debian Project Leader (DPL), causing an outcry. Many voters considered Steve McIntyre a hot favorite – after all, he finished a close second to Anthony Towns in last year’s election – but the majority of votes went to Sam Hocevar (Figure 1). The graph with the election results, which was published after the shouting died down, might help you understand the complicated DPL election process, which is based on the Condorcet method [1].